Preview: Valencia CF v FC Barcelona

La Liga is back in action this weekend as FC Barcelona travel to Valencia on Saturday for a game at Mestalla Stadium. The last match these two teams played was during Barça’s awful April. Valencia walked off Camp Nou as winners with the result 2-1.

Barça have come back excellently from the international break with two 4-0 wins, the latest being yesterday at Camp Nou against Manchester City. Barça will hopefully look to continue this current form. Though they already suffered 3 losses home at Mestalla, Valencia seem to have kickstarted their season with newly appointed coach Voro González. They have 3 wins in 4 matches with him.

Valencia have only Nani in doubt for this game, who is currently suffering from a groin injury.

In the midweek match against Manchester City both Alba and Piqué were substituted due to injuries. Alba will miss 2 weeks of matches, and Pique will be out for 3 weeks. Also Cillessen is still out with his injury from the international break.

Match Prediction

Playing at the Mestella is always tough. Barça’s last win there is almost 2 years back, which means it’s time for another one. We hope the team can continue their form and return to Barça with a 2-0 win.

This Valencia team looks different from the team in August and September. They were so bad in the first 2 months of the season conceding goals from everywhere. That tackle from Perez on Iniesta was a bad tackle that might end Iniesta’s season. I would be surprise if it is not torn ACL, not to say Enzo Perez is a dirty player because he is not it was just a bad tackle.

Kneowell Anyanwu

And ACL it is, slight tear tho

Alexis Sanchez

I think it is Lateral Collateral Ligament rather than the Anterior one. I heard the match commentator saying external ligament which I think he was referring to Lateral. It is way better than ACL because ACL takes minimum 6 months and up to 9 months.

Kneowell Anyanwu

5 injuries to our 5 first choice players, and we grind on. the chemistry isn’t there yet with these new guys, Neymar made many fruitless passes, umtiti masch partnership obviously needs more work, roberto is not sharp yet, neither is messi. But yet again, another crucial 3 points in the face of all these challenges, this team just grinds on for the result with all it has got. MSN really worked that last goal out, kudos to them. Messi showed class and composure with a “diego, beat this” finish as diego Alves was trying to de-stabilise him. Without Iniesta, Arda, Pique, Rafinha, and Alba? I consider this a big win.

Eivind Niclasen

A costly victory against a dirty side. With Mallenco refereeing there will always be chaos and controversy, but today it worked for us and certainly against us. Messi´s opener should have been cancelled but wasn´t, Mario Suarez and Enzo Perez should both have been sent off, and Iniesta could be out until 2017. We can also hope that Luisito has regained his scoring form; he´s been a bit quiet as of late – until today.

I am still worried about the midfield. Iniesta is out for some time, and Busquets is back to his horrible early season form. Piqué is unavailable, while Neymar is anything but lethal in front of goal. Still good at creating chances, though. Finally, it will be interesting if Valencia CF will receive any punishment for the water bottle thrown in Neymar face during the celebration of the winning goal.